Ever since Amazon launched its music store back in September 2007, everyone assumed its discounted prices and DRM free catalog was a result of the music industries dissatisfaction with Apples dominance. With iTunes being the primary management software for the most popular MP3 player on the planet, Amazon knew it would need an edge to stay competitive. The 10 cent per track discount was a nice touch, but techies and audio enthusiasts alike were eager to switch if it meant we could free our music. Most of us assumed the DRM restrictions on iTunes would remain for the forcible future, but now that this has turned out not to be the case what else wasn’t true?

Well, according to unnamed sources cited by CNET, everybody selling downloadable music is also paying the same wholesale price. Though it has never been confirmed, many believe Apple makes but a few pennies per .99 cent download. If this is indeed true, anything else sold below this price might actually be a loss leader. Now with iTunes discounting its back catalog of tracks to a mere .69 cents, and at comparable bit rates, it’s well positioned to steal back business from Amazon. NPD senior industry analyst Russ Crupnick claims the two services don’t impact each other as much as we might think, but at the very least it certainly makes switching from iTunes to a separate web store much less desirable then it used to be.

Now that iTunes has gone DRM free, and has begun to discount its back catalog of tracks, can Amazon still compete?

iTunes has expanded its library of DRM-free music with the addition of 8 million songs devoid of any copyright protection. The move that was announced today at Macworld comes after Apple reached an understanding with the three largest music labels, Sony BMG, Warner Music, and Universal. It already has a similar agreement with EMI and has been providing music belonging to that label sans any DRM for around a year.

Apple is also going to allow people the luxury of ridding their iTunes music library of its copyright protection. But for that users will have to shelve out an extra 30 cents for every song they want to convert. Another 2 million DRM-free tracks are going to become available on iTunes in April.

Steve Jobs' health has been a cause of great speculation all around the internet in recent days. Most conjectures pointed at sickness of some sort or the other, though the gravity of the purported illness swayed wildly in each theory. Perhaps fearing that the rumors would eventually dent the spirits of investors, Steve Jobs broke his silence by issuing a statement detailing the current state of his health.

Jobs acknowledged that he is suffering from a hormone imbalance that sends the protein level in a patient's body plummeting. His doctors believe that it will take him until spring to recover fully. His unnamed ailment closely resembles Crohn’s Disease, which impacts the upper intestine, according to a report. One thing is for certain that Apple aficionados must be amassing more information on the Crohn’s disease - few might even be working on a more effective cure.

Apple investors and fans must be feeling a lot better after receiving official word on Jobs’ health. Perhaps Jobs felt that had he delayed an official statement any further it could have opened the door wide open for wilder speculation. After all, it was only a few months ago that his obituary was published. We wish him a speedy recovery.

As digital music stores become more common and convenient, the age of the compact disc as the preferred medium is coming to a close. In fact, according to year-end sales figures released by The Nielsen Co., sales of CDs are down a whopping 20 percent.

The sales of physical discs have dropped from 450.5 million in 2007 to only 362.6 million in 2008. And during this time, digital album sales made a gigantic jump of 32 percent over their previous year’s sales.

Apple’s iTunes music store has been particularly successful, having broken the 1 billion song mark with 1.07 billion sold. Along with this, their sales went up 27 percent over the previous year.

We checked our Maximum PC zodiac chart, and realized that 2008 was the Year of the Rant. Gordon's capacity for rage never ceases to amaze, so this week, we present to you 2 hours and 40 minutes of non-stop ranting. Culled from this past year's podcasts, this all-rant episode includes anger toward interoffice spam emails, indignant hippies shopping for organic food, and shirts sticking out of sweaters. A certain Cuppertino-based tech company doesn't get off easy, either.

Do you have a tech question? A comment? A tale of technological triumph? Just need to get something off your chest? A secret to share? Email us at maximumpcpodcast@gmail.com or call our 24-hour No BS Podcast hotline at 877.404.1337 x1337--operators are standing by.

One of the weaknessess with HP's MediaSmart servers running MIcrosoft's Windows Home Server software was that it was of no use as backup platforms for Macs running the Time Machine backup software. That shortcoming is no longer the case, as HP announced plans to upgrade its MediaSmart server lineup with a pair of Mac-compatible models - HP MediaSmart Server ex485 (750GB of hard disk storage) and ex487 (1.5TB).

"A growing number of digital-savvy households have both Windows and Mac computers, with hundreds and sometimes thousands of media files and documents scattered across these devices,” said Jason Zajac, vice president of strategy, Worldwide Attach Group, HP. “The HP MediaSmart Server protects, stores and organizes this content from anywhere on a network so consumers can access and share it any place they are connected."

Both models come with a 64-bit Intel Celeron processor clocked at 2.0Ghz, 2GB of DDR2-800 RAM (previous models only came with 512MB of RAM), and expandability with up to 9TB of storage. The ex485 and ex487 are expected to be available in February 2009 for $600 and $750 respectively.

Competition for the upcoming refreshed MediaSmart line may come from Apple, 9to5Mac.com speculates. According to the Mac site, Apple has plans to expand the Time Capsule paltform to include much of the same functionality, with the real question being whether or not Apple will decide to put most of its services in the Cloud. If such an update is in the cards for Apple, an announcement would likely be forthcoming at Macworld, which runs from January 5-9, 2009.

It is common knowledge that smartphones are fast emerging as a dainty prey for malware proliferators. But a recent press release by IT security firm ESET, which spelled out some of the potential threats in 2009, might have iPhone and Android users worried in particular.

ESET warned in the press release that it expects both the iPhone and Android to become more vulnerable to malware. The company also expects both the smartphone platforms to fall prey to mobile browser exploits that might target their WebKit-based browsers.

The security firm has prognosticated an increase in fake antivirus extortion in 2009. “Some of the major antivirus companies have seen their websites spoofed over the last couple of months,” according to David Harley, Director of Malware Intelligence at ESET. The real threat lies in the fact that internet charlatans are leaving no stone turned in their bid to appear as credible as possible.

According to papers filed in a U.S District Court in Arizona, the patent pertains to "methods and systems for accessing one or more computer files via a graphical icon, wherein the graphical icon includes an image of a selected portion or portions of one or more computer files." The patent was awarded to the company as recently as March, 2008.

If it is able to make its case successfully, a windfall awaits Cygnus as it has two of the leading operating systems, three of the major web browsers and the insanely popular iPhone in its crosshairs.

Thanks to some recent swirling rumors, there’s word on the street that Dell is planning to release an ultra-thin, ultra-portable notebook aimed at rivaling the MacBook Air.

According to the fashion blog (seriously) Uptownlife.net, “Rumor has it that Dell is coming out with a computer called Adamo that will rival the MacBook Air.” Their exact source still hasn’t been cited, but given that the computer has its own website, there’s reason to believe that it’ll be upon us soon.

Thanks to the lack of solid evidence, any speculation we can provide will be about as good as any ol’ fashion blog. Though, with any luck there won’t be much waiting until the announcement, so we can get our grubby hands on whatever Adamo turns out to be and let you know if it really is a MacBook Air rival.

So you opened your advent calendar today, and what did you find? A new episode of the No BS Podcast, of course. In our penultimate podcast of 2008, we find time to not care about Apple’s recent announcement that they’re pulling out of Macworld Expo, discuss the merits of Nvidia’s new Ion netbook platform, and speculate about what we’ll see at CES next month. Join the podcast gang as we send off this past year (next week is a special all-rant edition), visit the lab, and answer your tech questions.

Do you have a tech question? A comment? A tale of technological triumph? Just need to get something off your chest? A secret to share? Email us at maximumpcpodcast@gmail.com or call our 24-hour No BS Podcast hotline at 877.404.1337 x1337--operators are standing by. For the love of all that's holy people, if you guys don't start asking tech questions, we're going to change the name to the Nothing But Undead podcast...